A-Z Challenge: Fashion

Hello loves!

So I missed last week's A-Z challenge because I just couldn't get what I wanted to actually work and gave up in the end. But I'm joining back in today!
I didn't want to do a mani directly inspired by a dress or pattern because I did that for my Copycat mani, so I did something a little different instead.

The base for these is Freckles Polish-Ben Dover from her new Prank Call collection. It's a really deep shimmery navy which I think is really pretty! I topped it with Let It Glitter!-Golden Star which is another wintery polish that I really like. On my accents I have also got Essence-Sparkling Water Lily which is a really pretty shimmery white. I also used my old faithfuls-my Barry M nail art pens-for the details.

What do you think? Fun, no?

Happy-it's-nearly-Friday!

~Nail Art Novice~

Sparkly Zig Zags

As I said in my last post, I am starting a new job tomorrow (aah!) and I don't yet know what the rules will be regarding nails so for the first couple of weeks I'm going to go with toned down nails which will be weird! Because of this I decided that I would do one last ridiculously colourful/sparkly mani before I go for something much more work appropriate later this evening.

I started with a base of Dark Metal Lacquer-Flashy Sparklies which is an amazing gold holo glitter polish that just looks fabulous. I used some zigzag vinyls from VyNails and then added bright colours on top using Barry M-Satsuma, Blue Grape, Kiwi, Passionfruit, Key Lime, Sinful Colors-Amethyst, Dream On and Sally Hansen-Brisk Blue, Sonic Bloom, Man-go Team! 

Bright and cheerful! I figured I'm probably not going to be able to wear most of these colours at work so I'd give them a final showing before they go into semi retirement for the time being. Also that base polish is just gorgeous, I love the way that it sparkles!

Wish me luck for tomorrow lovelies!

~Nail Art Novice~

Happy Halloweeeeeen!

Hello lovelies and a Happy Halloween to you all!

This is my Polish Party mani for this month because the theme couldn't be anything other than Halloween, could it! I couldn't pick a single theme for this one so just did a skittle-it was lots of fun.

Base colours: W7-Black, Moyra-#63, China Glaze-But Of Corpse and Stop That Train! (both from my Coloristiq box) and Barry M-Matt White.
Glow In The Dark toppers/colours: Violet Rose Polishes-Es Paradis and Amnesia, Dark Metal Lacquer-Beings Of Light and BK Polishes-#5, #6 and #10.

I used vinyls from She Sells Seashells for the pumpkins/bats and freehanded the rest!

I kinda love my little ghostie's reflection ^_^

So there we go! Hope you all had a good Halloween and didn't get too many tricks ;)

Check out the other spooky manis in the Inlinkz!

~Nail Art Novice~

Glitter Me Monday: Autumn Glitters

Hello lovelies!

I've been a very lazy blogger and not posted anything all week, oops! I did do my nails but just couldn't find the motivation to sort the pictures out and get them uploaded =(

BUT I am back and will hopefully be getting them all sorted and up here over the next week to make up for it so YAY.

For today's GMM I used lots of autumnal polishes/glitters-I LOVE autumn and so this mani made me very happy! I did some gradients using the Barry M autumnal gellies in Mustard, Paprika, Chilli and Cocoa. On my accents I used a coat of China Glaze-White Cap and then added some autumnal leaf nail vinyls which were from Make It Stick Designs. On my other fingers I used a variety of Autum glitters-Tara's Talons-Chocolate Orange, Nelly Polishes-Prototype and Absolut Lacquer-Falling Leaves.

What do you reckon? I kinda love these if I'm honest, they remind me of scrunching through leaves and large mugs of warming drinks. I love these sorts of colours together and they went together really well in the gradients.

What's your favourite season?

~Nail Art Novice~

Glitter Me Mondays: Dark Metal Lacquer-U-Fig

Hello lovelies, happy (?) Monday to you!

For this week's GMM I just really fancied doing something silly again as I haven't done any daft nail art in a while. The glitter I'm using as my base is Dark Metal Lacquer-U-Fig which is from a new (to me!) British indie and I won it and a couple of  others in her end of summer giveaway. It's an almost khaki green full of tiny black microglitters that reminds me of kiwi fruits. I used three coats because the first looked a bit patchy but it filled in really nicely with a second (and the third was just to get a couple of bits I'd missed). Once it was on my nails I realised it was just crying out to be turned into silly monsters! For the eyes I used Sally Hansen-Man-go Team!, Collection-Look At Me! and Maybelline-Ceramic Blue plus Rimmel-Rose Libertine for the tongues. The black and white details were (of course) done using my Barry M nail art pens, and I added a layer of Rimmel's matte topcoat to finish.

Hehe! What do you think? I love fun nail art like this sometimes. I really like the glitter too, I think it's one that wouldn't be for everyone but it's definitely for me!

Here's a shot before I matted it so you can see the glitter in all its glory (this is with a coat of Seche Vite, it's actually a bit matte itself without topcoat)-it's really different to anything I've seen before but I like it!

See you soon!

~Nail Art Novice~

Polish of the Week: A-England-Iseult

Hello loves! How's your weekend going?

I've got another POTW today in the form of A-England-Iseult. I have used this polish on the blog before but I don't mind an excuse to do so again-I am always surprised by how pretty it is. Iseult is a very pale pink polish with a silvery shimmer to it-very delicate and pretty. I used it as the base for my cloud mani today and used Freckles Polish holos over the top in Purple Planters Punch and Blue Hawaii.

Please excuse my poor ring finger-in the last week I've had really bad breaks on both my ring fingers so I've had to bring all my other nails down a bit to match-sigh!

Ohhh it looks so sad and nubbiny =(

I really like the way the light catches these-those holos are gorgeous colours and Iseult is the perfect base for them I reckon. I love the rainbows/shimmers you can see on my thumb nail pic! It's a really girly mani but actually I don't mind it, for once!

What do you reckon?

~Nail Art Novice~

Don't forget the Tara's Talons store re-opens at midnight tonight and you can get 50% off with the code BACK50!

Tara's Talons NEW COLLECTIONS swatches

~PIC HEAVY POST~
~Items in this post were sent to me for my honest review~

Hello lovelies!
Today I have some exciting swatches from Tara's new collections. Tara's Talons is re-opening on Sunday at 1 minute past midnight and she has four new collections on offer for you. Today I have swatches of polishes from the Autumn and Return of the Randoms collections, and there's also a halloween collection based on the movie Scream and a topcoats collection featuring four different top coats to make your manis look even more fabulous.

First up is Back To School from the autumn collection. This is three coats. It's a grey crelly with what looks like at first just black mini glitters in it but when you get it on you notice that there are some blues and holoy glitters hidden in there too.

Application was smooth and easy although the finish was a little rough, but nothing that a layer of topcoat couldn't fix! This was in one of Tara's new mini bottles-still 5mls but now round so they match her larger ones-and with new shiny labels too! 

Next up is Blackberry-also from the Autumn collection. Again this is three coats, although I only needed two for opacity. It's a gorgeous purple with a fuchsia shimmer and plum coloured hexes.

This one went on really smoothly and has a really gorgeous shiny colour. It's really opaque-almost a one coater. The only "problem" (for want of a better word) I found was that as it was so opaque the hexes got lost in multiple layers and just added a strange bumpy texture to the nail instead (you can kind of see this at the top left of my middle nail-although it was more noticeable in person). I'd say thin coats or a single coat over undies would be the best way to wear this one if you didn't want that to happen. 

This next polish is Luxe from the Return of the Randomness collection. I really like this one! It's a bright aqua cream with gold microglitters throughout and the effect is so pretty! Three thin coats shown here:

This one has a slightly tricky formula in that it dried fairly quickly, so thin coats are needed and you have to work quite fast as you do so. It dries ever so slightly matte so needs a lick of shiny topcoat to bring out its full potential-but I think it's really lovely! I can see me wearing this one a lot.

Last but not least is Rainbows which is also from the Return of the Randomness collection. A gorgeous glitter bomb of every colour and size of glitter in a bottle. One coat over Back to School and two over Barry M-Crush.

Even from the mini bottle I had no trouble getting glitter onto my brush-it came out well loaded with the bigger shapes every time. I had to space them out a little given the tendency to clump together but that's how it is with all glitter bombs like this. Personally I think everyone should own at least one polish like this one because they're fun and bright and awesome. I'm loving them over autumnal colours right now too.

So that's my swatches, which one's your fave?

You can buy all these and many many moreTara's Talons from her Etsy store which will open at 0:01 on Sunday morning and she's having a 50% off sale to celebrate her re-opening! When you make an order enter the code BACK50 to get the discount, but the sale is only on for 24 hours! Don't worry though, if you miss it you can still use my blogger code to get 15% off any order after that. Just enter NailArtNovice at the checkout =)

Welcome back Tara!

~Nail Art Novice~

Glitter Me Monday: Freckles Polish-Easter Bonnet Competition

Hello loves, happy Monday!

Now it's finally Autumn (my favourite season!) I think it's about time for me to get around to wearing some of my spring polishes-I'm so contrary haha. The polish I've chosen today is one of the original Freckles Polishes from the spring collection and I loved it as soon as I saw it! It's so bright and colourful and I hadn't seen one similar before so I snapped it up.

Shown here is two coats over a yellow base (which was over a white base because it's not the greatest of pale yellows, haha!)

When I was doing these nails I had a whole day to myself because my boyfriend was out at work and I had just come from two days of naked nails whilst I was working, so I was in the mood to do something a little OTT. Simply because I haven't done one in a while, I decided on a double tape mani, because they look so awesome when they're done. I used Barry M-Teal and Rimmel-Purple Addict because they matched the glitters and would contrast nicely with the bright yellow. About a hundred pieces of striping tape later, here's what I ended up with:

It took a while but it was really relaxing to do so I didn't mind too much-anyone else find painting their nails really calming? I worked out this ended up being 8 layers of polish in the end (including base coat/top coat) but I reckon it's worth it!

What do you think?

~Nail Art Novice~

Glitter Me Mondays: Tara's Talons-The Mill Creek Killer

Hello loves,
Yet another week when I didn't manage to get this up on Monday but hey ho. I'm failing at blogging a bit at the moment because I keep getting distracted and doing things at the weekend and not getting posts scheduled-doh. I can't complain too much though, I had a great time this weekend cos my friend spontaneously decided to visit and take me to the seaside!

This week's GMM is another Tara's Talons because I love them and also because I have a lot of untried ones (I spoiled myself a little in her closing down sale!). This one's lovely-a black jelly base with blue and green glitters of various sizes in. It would layer well but I chose to wear it over a couple of coats of W7-Black to make life easier.

It's so sparkly! I love how it catches the light as I move.

Don't forget that Tara's Talons is RE-OPENING on the 21st September, and I should be able to give you a sneek peek at some of the polishes soon. Make sure you are following her on her Facebook page to get all the details, and tell your friends too as she's having a giveaway when she reaches a certain amount of followers!

As for me? I'm just going to try and get my blog posts back on track, so hopefully next week this will actually be posted on MONDAY, haha! We shall see...

~Nail Art Novice~

Glitter Me Monday: Tara's Talons-Merryweather

Hello lovelies!
I'm glossing swiftly over the fact that this is being posted on Tuesday and moving straight onto this week's GORGEOUS glitter. This one's from Tara's Villains and Heros collection (part two) from earlier this year and I knew I had to have it as soon as I saw it. It's a bluey/purpley base with twinkly yellow/greeny glitters in and OH it's pretty! I used three coats alone here, I was going to do some nail art on top but I liked it too much!

These photos really don't do it justice, there's a lot more sparkle going on that for some reason my camera just didn't want to pick up-they're kinda mesmerising in person actually. There's a better photo of this gorgeousness on my instagram over here if you're interested.

Ugh,I just love this one. I already know she's going to be a pain in the bum to remove but I like her so much I think I might even forgive her that.

Oh and have you heard the good news? Tara is reopening on the 21st of this month with a grand opening sale! Make sure you like her Facebook page here for all the details/up to date news =)

~Nail Art Novice~

Rara's Nautical Nails

Helloooo again!

For this mani I used Nails Inc-Big Red Apple, Tara's Talons-Supersoaker and a base of Barry M-Matt White. Also I used the anchor decals from The Vinyl Boutique. As you can see I recently bought some vinyl decals and I have been playing! I have never used them before so I was really pleased with how easy and simple they were to use especially to a complete beginner like me!

I used striping tape to do the lines on the accent nails but as I am very impatient and don't have a fast dry topcoat I always end up pulling the base coat off when I remove the tape and have to fill in the holes I have left behind!

I decided to only use my accent nails for the decals and I am glad I did because I think it makes the design look more striking!

This was a really quick and easy mani to do and I love all things nautical so it made me very happy!

*note to self* buy a fastdry topcoat!

~Rara~

Guest Post-Pocket Money Polishes

Hello Nail Art Notice Readers!

Big thank you to Jenni for having me back and I hope she’s having a great time on her travels! My mani today was inspired by tropical summer sunshine (sorry for the slightly dry fingers, I had a bit of a frustrating painting session before this mani which involved a lot of removing and starting again).

 I used Leighton Denny-Pure White which as whites goes is not too bad for application although needs three coats for completely even coverage. While these coats were drying I applied Dollish Polish-Auld Lang Syne which was gifted to me by a lovely polishy friend who wasn’t keen on the gold colour… I LOVE IT! This is the perfect soft holo-y gold, reminds me of hot sand glistening. Really lovely formula, I used two coats for full opacity. I think this was a special edition polish for one of the Llarowe indie boxes but these things do pop up on nail sale from time to time. You could probably get a similar finish using Ciate Sand Dune and a holo topcoat. On my second accent nail (you lucky devils getting two!) I used two coats of OPI-Kiss Me I’m Brazilian from the spring/summer Brazil collection – I find this needs two normal coats and a good three stroke technique for the best even application but is a lovely pigmented bright pink.

 I went back to my white nails and added a coat of Iconic Effect-Subtle Holo Topcoat to add a bit of fizz and slightly soften the all white finish. It is a really lovely soft linear holo which is perfect for me although I am sure it would look equally amazing with a stronger holo although slightly more silvered when not in direct light.

 I added an abstract flower design to my pink nail – inspired by the tropical flower designs on girly surf wear. I am not 100% happy with how the flower came out, I wish I had used acrylic paint rather than nail polish as it is a lot easier to work with. I finished everything up with a coat of HK Girl Topcoat which for me has been a massive game changer in my love hate relationship with topcoats – I am feeling ALL the love with it right now. I bought mine from Rainbow Connection which stocks a few different sizes from a regular 15ml all the way up to salon size bottles (WANT!).

 Hope you’re all having a lovely day wherever you are and will come and check out what I am up to over on Pocket Money Polishes soon! What do you think of mix and match manis? What are your go to sunshine mani colours? I definitely love a good holo and a soft gold in the summer, just making a refreshing change from neon brights sometimes. Let me know your thoughts with a comment below!

Tara's Talons-Not A Custom, Hook, Vegas Baby! and Cloudy Skies

~VERY Pic Heavy Post~
~Products in this post were sent to me for my honest review~

This posts comes tinged with sadness for me-this is my Tara's Talons Team welcome box which I received yesterday and I was really excited to be starting this new venture with one of my absolute favourite indie makers. Today, however, Tara announced she was temporarily closing her shop due to personal reasons, which is absolutely gutting! One way or another this has not been a great week for indie makers but boy did this one hit hard-I'm really going to miss Tara's lovely creations!

Onto nicer things though-the package! I got some lovely things-polishes, hand cream, some jewellery and some nail arty bits and bobs-but I'm just showing you the polishes today. I'm going to try and not be too wordy and just let the lovely pictures speak for themselves! I will say though that I had no problems applying any of them-they all had a lovely formula and went on great. I didn't fish for any glitters-even in Vegas Baby!-although I did place them onto the nails because they wanted to clump together somewhat-but that's what chunky glitters always do so not an issue!

OK, picture time!

Not A Custom-Accents: 3 coats alone, Others: 2 coats over Rimmel-Red Obsession

Hook-Accents: 3 coats alone, Others: 1 coat over Barry M-Navy

Vegas Baby!-So much going on in this one! Definitely managed to capture the gaudy opulence of Vegas! Two coats over Rimmel-Moonwalking and two coats over Sinful Colors-Cool Grey

Cloudy Skies-Brother to Clear Skies, made on my suggestion to Tara! Two coats over Sinful Colors-Cool Grey (for opacity)

So there you go! I really love them all, even Vegas Baby! which surprised me given how pink it is, but it's so sparkly and lovely that it totally won me over!

If you want to grab yourself a bargain and secure yourself some TTs for the last time (at least in a while) then head on over to her Etsy store before it closes at Midnight! Use the code SUMMER at the checkout to get 50% off your order-but hurry-the shelves are emptying fast!

I just wanted to say a huge thankyou to Tara for the opportunities she's given me to work with her and all the beautiful polishes she's made. I wish her all the best and hope she will return to polish making soon, because the world will be a lot less sparkly and a lot less lovely without her and her creations in it. I don't think I've gone a single month without featuring a TT polish on my blog since I got my very first one, and I certainly don't think I will in the near future either! Tara-we all love you! Thankyou for being the first UK Indie and for making so many people so happy! It's been amazing working with you (however briefly) and I will treasure all my TTs for years to come. 

~Nail Art Novice~

31 Week Nail Art Challenge 10-Gradients (And HOLOS)

I realised that I did a gradient last week for my rainbow nails so I would have to do something a little different this week. Instead of creating one gradient with lots of colours I created lots of gradients with only two colours instead-and managed to use 7 of my untrieds (denoted with a *) to boot!

Polishes used (thumb to little finger on right hand): Freckles Polish-French Martini, Freckles Polish-Purple Planters Punch*, Freckles Polish-Blue Hawai*, Smitten Polish-Bifrost, Too Fancy Lacquer-Cooper Trooper*, Freckles Polish-Caipirinha* (no, I have no idea how to pronounce it either =p), GOSH-Holographic Hero, Layla-Flash Black*, A England-Rose Bower* and Layla-Retro Pink*. Phew! They aren't the best gradients in the world, I think some of them needed a third colour in the middle to get them to blend properly, and some of the Laylas had a pig of a formula to try and do gradients with, but overall I'm happy with them! They look really awesome when they catch the light!

Taken in the fab lighting in my kitchen to
try and show you those rainbows!

What do you reckon? Are you a holo lover or hater? (How can you hate them, they're so pretty!?)

Also how is it JUNE already?! I'm going away in 18 days, eeeep!

~Nail Art Novice~